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A week in pictures

Welcome to the Jester's Kingdom. I hope you enjoy your stay. I'd offer you my second born to follow my blog via one of the handy links to the right, but you'd give him back. And I'm rather fond of him.

So, the last time you heard from them, our caterpillars had just arrived. They came with a note that said they would start to form chrysalides (John Wyndham fans kindly note the extra ‘e’) in five to seven days. Clearly, somebody informed these guys of the meaning of “make them wait in anticipation”.

To remind you, here was day 1:

Not the greatest picture, but I’m sorry to say none of them with my big camera have been. (Aside. Scott, I know we never exchange whatever day gifts. BUT. If you were so inclined, a fisheye lens for my rebel would be just the perfect mother’s day gift.) Ahem. Where was I. Oh yeah.

By day two, we had reached this state.

And here we are at day three.

And day four.

By day five, every time one of the little buggers climbed up to the ceiling, we were all just SURE it was getting ready to pupate, but it was like Braxton Hicks or Something.

Because it wasn’t until about 11PM on day six that four of them abruptly dangled in the appropriate J shape:

They still looked this way when the kids got up this morning.

But by 1PM of day seven, they suddenly looked like THIS.

And tonight, the other two are getting ready to go. For the curious, we got these things from Nature Gifts. (No – this isn’t sponsored content. Unlike my racy post from the other day, this is just fun with the kids.) The kit promises five Painted Lady caterpillars. We got six, and all six are so far thriving.

Note that they aren’t that shiny, but the flash on my phone made them look that way. (And it’s this phone shot that really gives the best details.)

About jesterqueen:Jessie Powell is the Jester Queen. She likes to tell you about her dog, her kids, her fiction, and her blog, but not necessarily in that order.

Don’t you all sound like proud, expectant parents?! I would have thought that the fisheye would give to much distortion on a closeup subject like this, maybe a macro lens would work better. Hop over and visit idiosyncratic eye’s recent post On Poetry

Oh bother. There’s me showing my ignorance. Yes, you’re correct. I looked it up and a fisheye is NOT the same as a macro lens. I’ve been using the two interchangeable. Doh! Thanks for the heads up. I’ll alter that above!!

Well I wasn’t sure which you meant for sure and I didn’t want to appear big headed. Now I’d love a fisheye, it’s so much fun for urban and architecture! Try switching to manual focus or using the closeup setting to see if that gets a little bit more out of your wide angle. Hop over and visit idiosyncratic eye’s recent post Weekly Photo Challenge: Together

I’m more a ‘let’s-see-what-this-button-does’ learner too and I’ve got a similar model so I know that it’s one great big but fun learning curve. 😉Hop over and visit idiosyncratic eye’s recent post Weekly Photo Challenge: Together

Ant farm. Shudder. Yeah. I’d be gunshy about anything that destructive. These guys don’t ever come out of a habitat until they are ready to be released (and you go outside and set them free at the end, BONUS)

Yeah, short lifespan, high carb diet. 8)
Happily, we get to observe them for a few days and then release them at a local park. Painted Ladies are native throughout the US, so the USDA doesn’t get upset like they would if we were bringing in a nonnative species.